What did Hitorie, wowaka and Vocaloid bring to the band scene? With their first Miku Symphony on the horizon, it's time to reflect upon their 10 year journey - Real Sound Interview
Original: https://realsound.jp/2025/10/post-2166627.html
Interview/Text by Tomohiro Ogawa, Photography by Takashi Ikemura 2025.10.03
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Fresh off of the milestone of the bandâs 10th anniversary and the wide array of shows, celebrations, and announcements that thus followed, stand Hitorie. Even after the loss of the bandâs founder, wowaka, Shinoda the now vocalist/guitarist, ygarshy the bassist, and Yumao the drummer continue to innovate and update the band to this day. Â
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In the year 2025 Hitorie released âFriend Chordâ, their 3rd album since becoming a 3 piece band, which served to thoroughly illustrate their newly ripened grooves and sequences. Now, after coming so far, looking back upon the path theyâve walked is more important than ever. In that vein, to commemorate the coinciding 10th year of âHatsune Miku Symphonyâ, the Vocaloid music by a full philharmonic orchestra, Hitorie are set to make a guest appearance at both the Yokohama and Kobe concerts. Thus have I taken the opportunity to ask Hitorie about their 10 year journey, and what spurs them to continue pushing forward. (Tomohiro Ogawa)
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--Upon receiving the offer from Miku Symphony to perform, how did you feel?
ããŒãŸãïŒå€§äžå€«ããªïŒããšæããŸããïŒç¬ïŒãããã¯ãã³ããªã®ã§ãYumao: I was like, âIs it really okay for us to be doing this?â (laughs). Weâre a rock band after all.Â
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Shinoda: Itâs supposed to be a symphony orchestra and sophisticated and all that, so weâre worried about how we will fit in (laughs).
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Yumao: I still canât quite picture how itâs going to turn out. The Miku Symphony people showed us a sample of how they want the orchestral remix to sound yet I still struggle to imagine it. But weâll never know until we try.
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ygarshy: Nevertheless, weâre honored to have been offered such a wonderful opportunity. Itâs not an experience that just anybody gets to have, so weâre so so thankful, and so so excited.Â
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ââUnknown Mother Gooseâ, along with âTwo-Faced Loversâ, âRolling Girlâ, âUnhappy Refrainâ, âWorldâs End Dancehallâ, are to be made into a medley for the show.
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Shinoda: Itâs really a boulder of a lineup (laughs).Â
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ygarshy: Weâve performed âTwo-Faced Loversâ live as Hitorie only once before.Â
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Shinoda: Yep, at the tiny venue in Kichijouji (Tokyo) called Club Seata.Â
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ygarshy: That too was a Vocaloid-centric event, so I remember we had practiced the song specifically just so we could do something special for that day.Â
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Shinoda: And now our second time ever playing it is going to be at Hatsune Miku Symphony of all places, the difference in scale is insane (laughs).
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âHowever the other 3 songs you perform often, correct?
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Shinoda: We do. Though, nowadays we still play both âRolling Girlâ and âUnhappy Refrainâ the same way we always have, except now itâs only us 3. We didnât adjust it to fit out current setup or call in a support guitar or anything so, to put it bluntly itâs so god damn hectic. I gotta play the riffs, I gotta go crazy with my pedalsâŠ. The whole schebang. So for me these 2 songs are just me bullshiting my way through âem (laughs).
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âWhen wowaka-san wrote those songs Iâm guessing he didnât exactly write them with the idea of real people singing them in mind.Â
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Shinoda: Well, yeah, I think thatâs why he had summoned me for Hitorie in the first place. Hitorie originally were only a 3 piece band as well, and at this point I totally get why they needed another guitar.Â
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âShinoda-san, you had joined the band back in the year 2012. Then in 2014 Hitorie got signed to a major label, and hit your 10 year mark just last year.Â
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Shinoda: Time really fliesâŠ..
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âYouâre bound to have made countless memories in these 10 years, which makes me wonder, does it feel as if much time has passed to you?
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Shinoda: I definitely feel it. I had never stuck to one thing for more than 10 years before. My own fortitude surprises even me. Especially because weâre partly only still here trucking because weâre stubborn and canât give up.Â
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Yumao: The fact that weâve been doing Hitorie for a long time now only really sunk in recently for me. It doesnât feel as if itâs been that long, or maybe thatâs only because I can only really view myself in a subjective light. Bands that grow tight knit over the years are a dime a dozen out there. Yet it only just hit me that maybe we too have a strong bond like that too, around late last year, or more like the start of this year.Â
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Shinoda: Yeah.Â
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Yumao: I forever felt like a newcomer, and automatically assumed that we were never perceived as a tight knit band. Yet now that I have juniors who were inspired by Hitorie popping up, and the reality of our influence is physically manifesting, it finally made me snap out of it and see us in an objective light.
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Shinoda: We were rookies 10 years ago.Â
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Yumao: That, and not to mention a lot of people who started around the same time as us have long since quit or left the scene. We really have been at this for a long time.Â
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âAs Shinoda had mentioned before, the Hitorie we see today found their humble beginnings as only wowaka-san, ygarshy-san, and Yumao-san, originally under the title of âHitori-Atelierâ. That would be 13 years ago from today, but what did it feel like being approached by the then Vocaloid producer wowaka-san about being in a band?
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Yumao: At first it was in the same spirit as doing a fun cover band together. He had approached ygarshy and I simultaneously at a bar counter in a venue. âI want to do a Number Girl cover band so letâs do this together,â he said.Â
ã€ã¬ã©ã·ïŒãããèŠããŠãªããã§ããããwowakaãèšã£ãŠãã®ïŒygarshy: I donât remember that. wowaka really said that?
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Yumao: He did. You and I were drinking together--.
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ygarshy: That I do remember.Â
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Shinoda: Maybe you hadnât joined in on the conversation much?
ããŒãŸãïŒåå ããŠããïŒç¬ïŒãåã£ãŠãããããããããããã£ãŠãYumao: Oh, he did (laughs). Surprisingly enough was actually chiming in, saying âLetâs do it, letâs do it.â
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ygarshy: That part I remember but, I donât recall mentioning Number Girl at all.Â
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Yumao: ygarshy and I had been talking about how we wanted to be in a band together one day, about how fun that would be. Thatâs when wowaka chipped in. It was that level of casual.Â
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âApproaching you saying âLetâs make a Number Girlâ sounds like something kids would do for fun, or something laid-back.Â
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Yumao: Yep yep, it was there where we simply casually decided to go to a studio together. Or, those were the vibes at least, did you not get that sense?
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ygarshy: Iâm not sure. I got the sense that the conversation was pretty passionate. wowaka was so eager about singing himself, with his own voice, and that really stuck with me.Â
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Yumao: At that point wowaka had witnessed many of his fellow Vocaloid producers and creators get up on stage and belt their hearts out. He was probably jealous, even frustrated with himself. I have a clear memory of me sympathizing with his burning passion. He knew he too was capable of doing what they were doing. Vocaloid culture generally concentrated on the creator not standing in the limelight, yet when these creators came out from behind the veil it turned out they were actually fantastic singers, which laundered them lots of praise and attention. So it kind of felt like âNo fair, damn you!â (Laughs).
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â I see. So wowaka was like âIâll show you what I can do too!âÂ
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Yumao: Yep, like âIâll show them all, so come along with me.â
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Shinoda: Definitely a bit of âIâm way better than those guysâ too.Â
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Yumao: You werenât there, yet you hit the nail on the head?
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Shinoda: Thereâs no way our leader wouldnât have thought something along those lines after all.Â
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ygarshy: This was a short while after wowaka had released his album âUnhappy Refrainâ so he was gaining traction via using Vocaloid to bring his music to the world, and was likely satisfied with it. But deep down he admired bands who performed with their own flesh and blood. The troubles involved with following that dream are what initially led him to explore the potential of Vocaloid, so itâs no wonder that at this point he was raring to try and chase his original dream again.Â
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âItâs true that he didnât touch Vocaloid at all in the window between wowaka starting Hitorie until releasing the song âUnknown Mother Gooseâ in 2017.
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Shinoda: Yes.
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âThat song was released specially for Hatsune Mikuâs 10th anniversary, but did you ever get the impression that prior to this song wowaka had been purposefully distancing himself from Vocaloid?
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Shinoda: He was too dead set on being in a rock band.Â
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Yumao: Mhm. My memory is a bit foggy here, but I did somewhat get the sense that wowaka was avoiding the culture as a whole.Â
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Shinoda: Agreed, yeah.
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Yumao: Which is why I felt so relieved for him when he finally decided to write Unknown Mother Goose. Heâs the type who becomes hell bent on his decisions once heâs made them, and wouldâve never come back unless someone convinced him otherwise. Picking up Vocaloid again was a huge wall for him.Â
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ygarshy: We didnât have any sway over him either.Â
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Yumao: The only thing I knew for sure was that once he decided to write that song, come hell or high water he would write that song.
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âYou mentioned that he was tunnel-visioned on pursuing being a band, but retrospectively what exactly did that entail?
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Yumao: This is just my two cents but, entities like us are now part of the norm, commonplace, nobody thinks anything of it anymore. But when it came to us, they sure did.
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âThatâs true, when Hitorie first came into the limelight you did seem to be something of an anomaly within the rock music scene, you were very unique.Â
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Yumao: At the time such was the case. And that had felt terribly unfair and insensitive, to me. People were only flaming us based on their assumptions alone, it was blatant that they had never listened to our music at all. So to be honest the way creators nowadays just automatically get citizenship and take it for granted kind of rubs me the wrong way sometimes. I canât help it.Â
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âThatâs understandable.Â
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Yumao: We, Yonezu Kenshi, and all us birds of a feather worked hard and paved the path so that everyone else can have it easy now, and I wish people were at least a little bit more aware of that fact? Though, to be fair Iâm not asking for people to go around thanking us or anything (laughs).Â
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ygarshy: Hahahahahaha!Â
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âwowaka mustâve especially felt that to an extreme extent as well. He mustâve hated Hitorie being called âThe Vocaloid producer, wowakaâs band.Â
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Yumao: He did. We were called âVocaloid-likeâ too many times.Â
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ygarshy: Too many times indeed.Â
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Yumao: What the heck is Vocaloid-like even supposed to mean?
ã€ã¬ã©ã·ïŒã俺ãªãã ããã£ãŠããæãã ã£ãã
ygarshy: Weâre us. Our own thing.Â
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âThat conflict and struggle you withstood is evidently embedded deep into the pieces of art made by the four of you.Â
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Shinoda: I think maybe this problem was a key component of his internal conflict, that guy really was constantly fighting against himself.
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Yumao: Devising a whole new type of format for music was just too wretched of a deed. That in turn came to be shackles that gripped at his neck. No good deed goes unpunished.Â
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Shinoda: And we were stuck bearing witness to the torments that come with being a pioneer.Â
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âHitorie did indeed pioneer a new musical format. Do you still keep it in mind when you write music, even now?
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Yumao: Now that you mention it, we did often stick to those 4/4 beats back in the day. 4/4 beats were mainstream for a while, but wowaka was way ahead of the curve, to the point that he was practically one of the trailblazers. So the scene may have changed but we simply continued on doing what we always did. And that was a real show of strength. Â
ã€ã¬ã©ã·ïŒç¢ºãã«ãæµè¡ã£ããããã£ããããããªããããïŒç¬ïŒãygarshy: Thatâs a good point. We werenât exactly chasing the trends when doing it (laughs).Â
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Yumao: Yep. Of course we werenât immune to the trends as well, but that wasnât really our motive when writing music. It was more just like an extra special little skill on our belts we used when writing.Â
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âTrue. You were busy sharpening your arsenal regardless of what others were doing. Hitorieâs unique style shines through in your most recent album, âFriend Chord,â especially.Â
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Shinoda: Yes.Â
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ygarshy: Whenever we make songs as the 3 of us, we make the conscious decision to steer away from purposefully mimicking wowakaâs quirks. We realized that as long as weâre performing and recording together, anything we make will naturally fit into our mold. Thus Friend Chord is the 3rd piece weâve made following that mentality.Â
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âWow, youâve released 3 albums already.
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Shinoda: Weâve been hard at work. Real hard.
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âThen you had released 4 albums back when you were a 4 piece band.Â
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Yumao: Yep. Itâs almost half and half now. The amount of years weâve been signed to a major label is now almost half and half too.Â
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Shinoda: Oh my gosh.Â
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Yumao: Yep, this is even more of an âOh my goshâ moment than you thought. The passing of time is inevitable but that still doesnât make it any less significant. It still feels like itâs only been at most 2 or 3 years.
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âTime is a fickle beast. The distribution of your songs from both eras has changed within your concert setlists as well.Â
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Shinoda: Many of our 3 piece songs have started to become staples.
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âOf course.Â
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Yumao: I donât remember exactly when this happened but, recently we fashioned together a setlist wherein a song written but each of the 4 of us all meshed together perfectly. It wasnât on purpose either, which made it all the more symbolic to me. âAll of our songs have achieved perfect harmony! This is so beautiful,â I thought.
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ygarshy: For a while we were under the impression that people only wanted to listen to songs written by wowaka, and had strived to make our audience happy. While this is still true to a degree even today, at a certain point in time we had the revelation that some people only first started listening to Hitorieâs music after the changes. We realized that we shouldnât let our assumptions get the better of us. Weâve since come to impartially decide on our setlists based only on who weâre performing with, or where and when weâre to perform. I think this optimization played a large role in the cementing of our newer staples.Â
ââäºå®ã4人ã§ãã£ãŠããé ã¯ãwowakaã®æ²ããããã³ãããšããŠæŽ»åããŠããããã§ããããã
âIt doesnât help that you banded together for the sole purpose of performing wowakaâs songs in the first place.
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ygarshy: Exactly.Â
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Shinoda: One of the key motivations for continuing this band was actually just that: for Hitorie to exist as an archive to keep wowakaâs songs alive.Â
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ygarshy: The word âarchiveâ is very Shinoda of you.Â
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Shinoda: It wasnât until around the finale of our first tour that Yumao blurted out âHey letâs write a songâ. I was like âHuh?â (Laughs).
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Yumao: If nobody spoke up then it was never gonna happen soâŠ
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Shinoda: The weight I felt on my shoulders when you said that was something intense though.Â
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âThe decision to write new songs and have Shinoda sing them was what led you to release 3 fantastic albums, and for you to evolve as a band. If being a living archive was your sole purpose then I doubt you wouldâve been able to come as far as you have today.Â
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Shinoda: Agreed. The more we do shows, the more we grow, and the more I learn just how much weâre capable of. Despite it being wowakaâs songs that weâre performing, weâve managed to twist them in our very own way. Sometimes when I listen back on old recordings of our old performances I notice that wowaka would sing things entirely differently from how I do now. It makes me wanna tell him âSorry for messing with your workâ (laughs). Change just occurs naturally whether I want it to or not.Â
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âWhat are your plans for the future now that you are fresh off of your tour?
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Shinoda: We have Miku Symphony on our plate of course, then next year we have another big show in the Line Cube (a 2000 capacity venue in Shibuya), on top of a bunch more shows planned. For now weâre writing music.Â
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Yumao: Weâve started to expand our scope outside of only Japan as well, bit by bit. Our influence has extended to China, as we do at least 5 or 6 shows there a year now. I personally love touring around to new places. I would love to go outside of Asia and perform in Europe or the Americas as well but. For now itâs only part of the greater vision.Â
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There's a preview of their performance up on Youtube:
Or don't hesitate to buy the full DVD, available on CDJapan or other places:
Hatsune Miku Simphony - Miku Symphony 2025 Orchestral Live Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra Blu-ray
Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra,Hatsune Miku Simphony - Miku Symphony 2025 Orchestral Live,Blu-ray
listed at CDJapan! Get it delivered safely